PaulineWebberInk Does the Great Vic - Post 2

Less than two weeks to go to the start of the RACV Great Victorian Bike Ride. My training has revealed a radical concept - in order to be fit and energised, I need to eat less.

Less food, better quality, healthier.

The harder I work, the more my body calls for the best fuel I can give it. So I've taken a couple of days out to get the system sorted. No junk, no meat, no grog, loads of veges, some fruit, lots of grains.

As I was reminded by a Bike Vic colleague last week, this tour has HILLS and plenty of them, so it's hills I've been up, and down, and up again. Sydney has lots of hills; it also has lots of traffic lights, stop signs, intersections, wayward pedestrians with mobile phones pressed to their ears and eyes firmly on the pavement, and any number of other distractions that take the foot from the peddle.

I should be out at Bobbin Head or Galston Gorge but my days are already chocker with work, kids and study. The spirit is willing, but the wherewithal is not herewithal. Still, I've managed quite a good course of interval sessions near my inner-west home and have attained at least consistent rpm in the saddle. I've also done lots of weights to build up the thighs. So here's hoping.

My husband is a man who knows how to bend with the breeze. He will quite happily hop in the sag-wagon if he runs out of puff after lunch-stop. But I know I will feel some idiotic sense of failure if I don't ride out each day. In this respect, he shows a wisdom I've yet to achieve.